Help. Which forum to post this tree dispute?

johnscales

Hi All.

I have a tree just outside my property which is owned by the local housing association (H/A). The roots of the tree have split the wall such that there is a gap of about 1 inch more or less from top to bottom of the wall following the brick joins through which you can see clean through.
I have been on a round trip via the H/A, the local council and back to the H/A to get the problem resolved.
Today, after 18 months of to'ing and fro'ing I received a mail from the H/A which i'm unsure how to take :

"I have been in further discussions with our legal team to clarify the position. Now that all the information has been acquired it will be escalated to Senior Management for a decision to be made. I will feedback to you within the next ten working days."

It has already been established that the tree is their responsibility yet this e-mail sounds neither positive nor negative in regards to actually stating that they will be doing something about it.
I'll wait the 10 days and see what the outcome is but is there anyone out there who can offer any help or advice should the outcome 'go south' after all this time? I have involved C.A.B already from the outset but they're waiting to see the response from H/A. To be honest they've been pretty darn ineffective up to now and personally I think that 18 months is an absolutely ridiculous amount of time to get to the stage of the email from H/A which I've cut and paste above.
Mind you 7 months of this wasted time was spent waiting for the council to confirm whether the tree was the responsibility of theirs or H/A.
Oh, one last thing. To complicate matters the trees on my side of the road are all just about on conservation land so getting an 'ok' to cut this tree potentially could prove difficult (although that shouldn't be my concern).

Thanks for reading,
John

Ps.
If there's a better forum in which I should be posting please let me know.
Thanks

ILW

Who owns the house?

johnscales

I own the house.

Cazza

Is it a garden wall or the wall of the actual house? I think you need to get your building insurer involved in this (and I'm not sure but there may be a clause in the contract that says you need to let them know about the damage, even if you don't need their help to get it fixed?)

johnscales

Been there with them a long time ago Cazza. Unfortunately I was insured with another insurer at the time it all first started and my current insurer had advised that I go back to them and suggested I raise a claim through them.
Long story short (and as this was all so long ago now) I stopped chasing my insurer because the H/A appeared to be playing nicely.
Maybe not the best thing I did on reflection but I'm going down the route of 'their tree their responsibility' now and i'm seeing whether they will, as suggested by them on my earliest email exchanges, resolve the problem should they find the tree to be their responsibility. Seeing as this is the case it seems odd that the mail I received today doesn't speak of dealing with the problem now.
I do know that I can take it to court if needs be and get a judge to decide (so I was informed by my insurer).

johnscales

Oh, and it's the boundary wall, not the wall of the house btw

suered

You could also try posting over on the forum at gardenlaw.co.uk

fluffnutter

'Trip over' the roots, then launch a personal injury claim for £20K against your council. That will get them moving.

johnscales

Thanks SueRed. I have joined the gardening law site.